Working within the box

No matter how small your outdoor space, you can create a garden retreat that changes with the seasons

August 08, 2003|By Laurie Grano, Special to the Tribune.

John Eskandari found the perfect home when he saw the third-floor Rogers Park apartment, with its early-1900s details, generous windows and, in particular, the brick porch.

Problem was, somebody else was preparing to rent the space. Eskandari wanted that porch: he persuaded the tenant-to-be to take another flat in the same building.

"He didn't care," Eskandari said with a laugh. "I was looking for something with a porch. I chose that apartment because it's the one in the building that gets the day's last sun."

Almost two years later, Eskandari, a horticulturist at Gethsemane Garden Center on Chicago's North Side, has turned his tiny portico into a private open-air room teeming with lush potted trees and shrubs, most of them hardy varieties usually planted in garden beds. An antique wicker love seat and old planter's bench furnish the sitting area, and plants are trained to screen curious eyes from the nine-story building looming down the street. A wall lattice holds wreaths and multicolored light strings lend nighttime atmosphere.

It measures a mere 10 by 4 feet, but Eskandari's balcony paradise shows how, with a little imagination and planning, suspended outdoor spaces can be made interesting, functional and even inspirational.

"I've had so many people go up there and say 'I had no idea you could do this,'" Eskandari said. "I love my porch. It's the first place I go when I walk in the door."

Bringing the indoors out is a huge home and garden design trend, even in Chicago, with its withering winters and steamy summers.

Dwellers in multifamily buildings with balconies, porches or patios are prime candidates for the outdoor room movement. There are plenty of ways these small outside spaces can be made much more than a place to park the bike and barbecue grill, experts say.

"If you can fit a 24-inch diameter table and two chairs, then you've got a place for an outdoor room," said Jennifer Brennan, horticulture information specialist at Chalet Nursery & Garden Shops in Wilmette. "Once you've got your seating, plants and lighting, you have a wonderful place to come home to after work."

When it comes to decorating personal outdoor spaces, residents of multifamily buildings often face special challenges. Their outdoor space is likely small. The space is probably exposed to too much sun, shade or wind, or to too many neighboring windows. Balcony owners in particular need to take care about adding too much weight when furnishing.

But with ingenuity, and by taking advantage of new lightweight outdoor furniture and planting containers available in all styles and price ranges, experts say even sky-high outdoor spaces can be transformed into welcoming retreats with an earthy feel.

Joe and Donna Cusimano wanted just that when they purchased their 46th-floor condominium three years ago in Park Tower. Empty-nesters moving from a suburban house in Joliet, the couple bought the high-rise unit on the city's Magnificent Mile for its curved, balconied terrace boasting soaring Lake Michigan and city views, Donna Cusimano said.

"We had a garden before, and I still wanted an area with a garden feel," she said.

But at only 15-by-10 feet, the terrace was a far cry smaller than their previous plot. The Cusimanos called in Chicago landscape architect Maria Smithburg of Artemisia Inc.

Limestone tiles were laid to blend with the adjoining kitchen flooring, leading the eye outside through the sliding glass doors and making the space seem larger. Two chairs and an ottoman with pale iron-look aluminum frames hold thick taupe cushions and provide cozy seating. A low glass-topped table in a contrasting dark finish offers a place to set drinks, books and plants.

Smithburg designed a free-standing metal trellis to arch along a supporting wall and over a cast-stone fountain, which appears to be wall-hung but is also free-standing.

A climbing hydrangea grows up the trellis, and the structure is anchored at each end by a pair of planter boxes with junipers for year-round evergreen interest. A small stainless-steel grill is tucked in a corner.

The potted annual plants--this season the Cusimanos are trying a few edibles--stand against the concrete balcony half-wall and metal railing and behind the table.

"Before, the terrace was totally bare. It was just a concrete floor," Smithburg said. "Now, with the annuals and the trellis and the fountain, it has a much more exotic look. They really work to create a green garden effect."

Donna Cusimano said she is learning to cope with the occasional wind-ravaged plant, something Smithburg said can usually be avoided by choosing tough plants such as lavender, which are acclimated to hot, dry climates.

The Cusimanos say they couldn't be more pleased with their outdoor room.